Source says more than 300 immigrant kids separated from family are in New York; Gov. Cuomo says he'll sue the feds over 'illegal' Trump policy

Source says more than 300 immigrant kids separated from family are in New York

Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday he will sue the federal government over its policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.’ southern border, as more than 70 of those children have wound up in facilities in New York State — with a federal source telling the Daily News the number of separated children here is even higher, 311.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the morality of this practice, but we also believe that this practice is illegal, and we are intending to bring suit against the federal government,” Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

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A young boy is detained along with his family members in Texas. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / TNS)

Cuomo said the children are being held in private facilities, including three in the Bronx, that are contracted by the federal government to provide services to unaccompanied alien children — minors who cross the border alone and whom the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement temporarily houses while seeking family sponsors.

“But these are not unaccompanied alien children. These are children who were separated from their parents,” Cuomo said.

A federal source told The News that the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s population of unaccompanied minors in New York State’s lower 14 counties was 1,321 as of Monday — but of those, 311 are actually in shelters as a result of separation from family held in detention centers. All of the facilities in the area house boys and girls, except one that houses boys 14 to 17, the source said.

Cuomo said that while the state has oversight of the facilities, it has been told it cannot provide services to the children in them without approval from the federal Health and Human Services Department, which he said told the state it would take weeks.

Gov. Cuomo called the policy "outrageous government conduct." (Susan Watts / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

As for the suit, Cuomo said he intends to bring it in the next two weeks and that it would be based on three legal theories.

“First, that it’s a violation of the constitutional rights of the parent to the care, custody and control of their children,” he said, and a violation of their due process as the children were removed without any hearings.

The second theory, he said, is the policy violates the terms of the 1997 Flores settlement that set national standards on the detention, release and treatment of children in immigration detention “and underscores the principle of family unity.”

And third, he said, “it is outrageous government conduct.”

Cuomo said the state has the legal right to bring such a suit.

“New York has standing, these agencies have standing, because there are children in New York who are, who have been taken from their parents without due process,” Cuomo said.

His counsel, Alphonso David, said, “The state is vindicating due process, familial association rights, of the children who are located in New York State. In addition New York State is protecting the health and welfare of children within its jurisdiction.”

Some of those children are being held at MercyFirst in Syosset, L.I., as reported Monday. Gerard McCaffrey, president and CEO of MercyFirst, brushed past a reporter seeking confirmation that nearly 60 kids are being housed there.

“It’s late at night. You can call me at work tomorrow,” said McCaffrey as he rushed into his Upper East Side apartment building.

Cuomo did not have a breakdown of how many children have been shipped to sites in New York.

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“We have about 10 facilities in the state. We haven’t spoken with all of them,” Cuomo said. “We know there are over 70 children, just by the ones that we have talked about, but they are in Dobbs Ferry, Lincolndale, Yonkers, Irvington, three in the Bronx, one in Syosett and one in Kingston.”

In a followup interview with The News, David declined to characterize these facilities, saying they offer varying degrees of security and services. They are co-located in facilities that provide state-certified foster care programs, David said, but the migrant children are not part of the state’s foster care network. Instead, the agencies contract directly with the Health and Human Services Department and its Office of Refugee Resettlement.

A second federal source said the Health and Human Services Department-funded facilities in New York for unaccompanied minors are not comparable to conditions at the facilities along the border, which include chain-link cages.

“Based off our conversations with providers contracted by the federal government, we believe there are dozens, and possibly many more, of separated children in New York City,” Seth Stein, a spokesman for Mayor de Blasio, said. “We have every indication that they are being cared for by qualified facilities and foster families. But that doesn’t make these family separations any less unconscionable and immoral in the mayor’s eyes.”

Typically, unaccompanied minors arrive in New York because they have family nearby, and they are held in such facilities while the government looks for relative sponsors to place them with.

Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester County, — which has a contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide such services — describes its program as a “family-like and nurturing environment,” that offers education, recreation, medical care and family reunification. It declined to comment on its unaccompanied minors program or whether it had children who were separated from their parents at the border.

In the Bronx, both Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Guardian Services have federal contracts to provide services and shelter to unaccompanied minors. The communications office at Lutheran Social Services said it could not answer questions about whether it housed children separated at the border; Catholic Guardian Services did not return a message left Tuesday afternoon.

At an unrelated press conference, de Blasio said it’s horrible to begin with for a child to be taken from his or her parent even if they’re held in separate facilities in the same town.

“But it’s much much worse if they’re separated by 1,000 miles, and you have no idea when that family’s going to get reunified,” he said. “And that’s what we fear we’re seeing, and we just have to do everything we can to stop it.”

De Blasio, who said he is considering a trip to the border, said that if visiting a facility here would help, he’d also consider that.

“I want to do whatever I can to stop this broken, inhumane policy,” he said, calling the border the immediate issue. “I also want to see anything we can do to stop New York City from being used as a place to send children separated from their parents.”

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Former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito — who just returned from a trip to the border — said it was as if the children had been “disappeared.”

“It tells you the enormity of this issue,” she said of having to house children separated at the border all the way in New York. “That’s what that tells you.”

City Public Advocate Letitia James also ripped the policy, as she held a baby following an unrelated press conference on child care.

“It is unconscionable in this country that we are basically snatching babies from the arms of their families, their mothers,” she said. “We should not be cooperating in this policy that separates families.”